Duck Valley Christmas

Come with me to the Duck Valley Indian Reservation in Nevada in the late 1950s and I’ll show you another memorable Christmas. Sit with me here on the bleachers in the tribal gymnasium and admire the tall evergreen tree in the corner trimmed with colorful lights and tinsel. Watch the school children as they scurry to find their places in preparation for their part on the program. That’s my husband, Ed, setting up the slide projector.

Now the crowd is beginning to gather. You thought they would all be Indian people? The non-Indians are government workers, teachers, missionaries, and hospital staff. You’ll see that most of the men wear typical western garb including cowboy hats and boots. Those beaded buckskin vests that some of them wear are hand made by women here on the reservation. Notice the cradleboards the mothers carry. No, they don’t carry them on their backs anymore. That was for when they had to walk long distances. Now they travel about the reservation in cars or pickups.

There’s my friend Jesse coming through the door. She’s our Paiute language helper. Notice her head scarf pulled low over her forehead and tied in back. She makes cradleboards. I’ve helped her gather sturdy red willow for the frame and smaller yellow willow for the shade. One day she tried to teach me to split a small willow stick to make the string she uses to weave the shade. She started the three way split with a knife, then held one piece in her mouth and pulled the other two with her hands to make three long strings. I tried but one string always pulled away from the others. I could never get long strings like she did.

Oh, you’re wondering about that strange smell? That’s smoked buckskin. It was offensive to me when we first came to the reservation. Now I love it. See the moccasins some of the women are wearing. The brown ones are made of smoked buckskin, the white ones of buckskin that hasn’t been smoked. Also you’ll notice that some of the cradleboards are covered with smoked buckskin. I’ve watched the women scrape the hides and sit for hours stretching the buckskin this way and that with their hands to make it supple. It takes a lot of work and the final product is beautiful.

Now that people have gathered, there’s quite a hubbub going on, isn’t there? How many languages do you hear? Two? Indian and English? That’s what I would have said a few years ago. Now I can hear three. You see, both Paiutes and Shoshones live here on the reservation. Their languages are quite similar, but when you listen long enough you can hear differences. Shoshone has a sound Paiute doesn’t have. Even in words that are almost identical, the Shoshones put the stress in a different place.

What’s that you say? Oh, are they going to have a gift exchange? Actually, parents bring gifts for their own children and put them under the Christmas tree. After the program, Santa will come and pass out the gifts. Then he’ll give a bag of treats to everyone.

The program’s about to start. The master of ceremonies is explaining that after the school children sing their songs and do their Christmas play, Mr. Andrews will show slides and tell the Christmas story in Paiute. You see, this is a very special Christmas for us because it is the first time we’ve had the opportunity to give a Christian message to the entire community in the Paiute language.

I hope you have enjoyed sharing Christmas Eve on the reservation with me. May you have a blessed Christmas this year as you celebrate the Savior’s birth..